Accessibility

Access Keys

People with limited mobility may have a hard time controlling a mouse to click on links, and tabbing through menus can be slow going. The W3C introduced the accesskey attribute to enable users to select the appropriate key on their keyboards and navigate to a particular link.

Windows users can navigate with the accesskey feature by typing ALT+Accesskey. On the Mac, you would use Ctrl+Accesskey. Internet Explorer users may also need to hit the “enter” key to activate a link.

Access Key Guide

H = Go Home

S = Skip past the navigation and go straight to the content.

A = Go to the accesskey definitions page.

1 = About L'Arche

2 = Working in a L'Arche Community

3 = Choosing your support from L'Arche

4 = Spirituality

5 = Support Us

6 = Shop

7 = Donate

8 = L'Arche in your area

9 = L'Arche Social Network

A = Accessibility

P = Privacy Policy

C = Contact Us

M = Site Map

Skip Links

At the top of the page there is a "Skip to main content" link. The "skip" links move the focus in the browser and in the screen magnifier or screen reader to the precise start of the content, making it very much easier to locate the required section.

People who use access technology such as speech or braille output frequently have to listen to the page in linear order. For example, from left to right and top to bottom. This can become tedious and laborious when, for example, the navigation bar has to be listened to, in full, at the beginning of every page on a website.

Using CSS

When layout is defined by CSS rather than being locked into an HTML table format, it can prevent a number of accessibility problems for screen reader users and people using either low screen resolutions or newer technologies with narrow screens.

Cascading style sheets - can be used to give format to headings and text in pages. Page structure - coding headings, paragraphs and lists correctly, allows people who use speech and braille output software to know what purpose a piece of text has.

Graphic intense sites or those that employ elements that prove inaccessible to disabled users can put CSS to good work by placing all these elements at the bottom of the source code. This way, normal browsers will render the layout properly for normal users, letting them enjoy the visuals while alternate browsers will easily render the simplified, informational content to disabled users.

Alternative Content

Because visually impaired users are often unable to see pictures, they rely heavily on the description associated with them. ALT tag for images and TITLE tag for other elements are used within the site to fully describe all elements of a web page.

Alternative text for all images and multimedia content are provided. Transcriptions for the video on the site are provided but you can also download them from the links below.

Valid HTML code

One of the reiterated recommendations of
W3C is to always validate the web pages and correct them so as they become standard compliant.

Although validation does not guarantee it, standard compliant pages stand higher chances of being compatible with various browsers. This increases overall accessibility by ensuring the web site is functional and fully visible to all users on all browsers.

Alternate browsers for disabled people read the source code line by line. By ensuring that the website uses correct code, one can prevent glitches or errors which may arise during this process.
Search engines can index more easily pages that are validated than those that are not.

Text Size

A text zoom option is provided on the site to increase text size within the site.

Colour Contrast

A colour contrast option is provided on the site to help those users with visual impairment or colour blindness.

Navigation

Users should be able to tell at any time their whereabouts are in a web site. The breadcumbs navigation, below the main navigation, is on the site for this purpose.

A sitemap is provided on the site as an alternative means to navigation.